32 



BULLETIN 698, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DWARF MILO. 



Dwarf milo is essentially a dwarf form of the ordinaiy standard 

 milo, differing chiefly in its lower stature. (See fig. 4.) Its origin is 

 not known, but probably it was derived from a mutation of standard 

 milo. Different selections of it have been grown throughout the 

 9-year period covered by these experiments. Considerable selection 

 has been practiced by the writers to improve it in uniformity of 

 height and ripening and to obtain more highly productive races. 

 The number of selections under experiment increased from 5 in 1908 

 to 17 in 1910, decreasing thereafter to 5 again in each of the last 

 three years. A total of 90 plats has been grown in the nine years. 

 A plat grown in 1915 is shown in figure 5. 



Fig. 5.— a plat of Dwarf milo, C. I. No. 332, at the Amarillo Cereal Field Station, Septemljer 14, 1915; 



yield, 72.8 bushels per acre. 



Dwarf milo has about the same growth period as standard milo 

 and therefore is affected by the same climatic conditions at about 

 the same stages of development. A study of the data on vegetative 

 and fruiting periods in Tables VI and VIII shows a close correspond- 

 ence between its variations and those of standard milo. The 

 average duration of the vegetative period of Dwarf milo in all years 

 is 73.5 days, or about 2 days shorter than that of milo. The shortest 

 average duration was 65 days, in 1914, and the longest was 79 days, 

 in 1916. Both these extremes are lower than those of milo, but 

 occur in the same years. The average duration of the fruitmg period 

 of all plats in the eight years in which the crop matured was 33.2 

 days, or 0.9 of a day longer than that of milo. The fruiting period 

 was only 26 days in 1914, but was increased to 45 days in 1915, these 

 periods being 3 days and 1 day longer, respectively, than those of 

 milo in the same years. 



